Valence Media has accused Robert Anderson of being a hacker and that he was paid $15,000 by the MPAA. According to a written statement by Anderson, he did offer to give information about Torrentspy (which is under Valence Media).
Apparently, there is an on-going legal battle between Valence Media and MPAA. MPAA has been on the lookout for directories that seem to make illegal downloading of copyrighted movies easier. Torrentspy is one of the search engines used to locate movie downloads.
According to Valence Media, MPAA has paid $15,000 to Anderson for emails, financial and technology information and such. The deal supposedly happened in June 2005 and the money was wired in July of that year. The MPAA official who is allegedly involved has not been contacted yet for any confirmation.
A problem with this entire thing is that Anderson actually had done marketing work for a different company associated with Bunnell. He even admitted this in a statement. Aside from that, he mentioned that he was upset with Bunnell.
There are difficulties in this situation. One is that Anderson had a business relationship with Bunnell. It ended around April 2005 and then the issue with MPAA came out in June that year. Then he took everything back by siding with Torrentspy. What adds to the complexity is that MPAA hired a hacker. There are legal issues with that, and because they had a contract with Anderson, what would that imply.
On the Internet, search engines make it easier to get different kinds of information. Just a few keywords and then you can download music and videos to your computer. It is best to be aware of what tools are considered legal. Else, it could be something to be used against you later on.